[As for the group's political bite, there's no greater example than the recent single, B.Y.O.B ., inspired by a TV ad for the Army.] It glamorized going into the Army, ... It made it look like a party where everybody was going to have a good time. |
As a writer I kind of go crazy. I even had, like, at least 20 or 30 more songs to bring into the band. But we had to stop and get into the studio at some point. |
Back in the day, when the emperor or the king or whatever waged war, they went to war, too. But that's been lost in time. |
Everybody's going to the party ... dancing in the desert blowing up the sunshine. |
He's gone so far to find no hope/ He's never coming back. |
I feel like people have only heard half a record so far, |
I feel like people have only heard half a record so far. But we like releasing shorter records. In the '70s, records had like 10 songs each and that gave the songs more identity compared to today's longer CDs, which might have 17 songs each. |
I have no interest in murder, and I have no interest in people dying, ... But I'm interested in people's minds, and sometimes Manson puts thoughts together that I find really interesting. Have you ever seen his unedited videos? He starts making a lot of sense. I'm sure people are scared of that, but to me, it's scarier to watch George Bush try to make sense. |
I just wrote the song sitting in my car waiting for my girlfriend. That's about it, man. You will know what I mean when you hear the song. |
I played for about two seconds in the game. No one knew who I was. They were looking at me like, 'Who is this guy?' But I don't think that Frankie Avalon is the biggest System of a Down fan. |
I see them both as one record, you know? Not to compare us to, like, THE BEATLES , but the only thing I can compare it to is, like, you listen to the 'White Album' and it's a double album, but, like, they're just a bunch of great songs. |
I'm so inside of it that maybe that's a little tough for me to tell, but I don't see too big of a difference. I see them both as one record, you know? Not to compare us to, like, the Beatles, but the only thing I can compare it to is, like, you listen to the 'White Album' and it's a double album, but, like, they're just a bunch of great songs. |
It's an instrumental. You know how anal I am about that word. [I hate] when people call classical music 'songs.' They are not songs. You've got to sing for a song. Music is instrumentals. It's important to me. It's not a jam either, because jams are improvised. |
It's important not to take yourself too seriously, ... and I think sometimes people take us a lot more seriously than we take ourselves, especially when it comes to politics. Politics, for me, is a reflection of the world I live in. But love is just as important as politics to me. They both exist in the world, you know? And if you don't reflect the entire world around you, then you're leaving something out. |
System of a Down are one of the most misunderstood bands around. I mean, Armenian rock? What the fuck is that? Political? I could name so many more of our songs that aren't about politics than ones that are. And for a long time, everyone thought Serj wrote all of our tunes. Until this album came out, people thought he wrote all the lyrics. So there are so many different misunderstandings of System of a Down that I don't even let it bother me anymore. I'm just kind of used to it. Our first bio said something like 'four guys based out of LA who are Armenian and political,' and, well, it wasn't really right at all. I mean, we are all Armenian, but we didn't plan that. |